Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
MINOR PROPHETS
the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. --- Amen.
Lecture One Hundred and Eighty-first
We saw in the last lecture that no works of the faithful please God, except through a gratuitous acceptance: it hence follows, that nothing can be ascribed to merits without derogating from the grace of Christ; for if the value of works depends on this, that God is our Father and is reconciled to us in Christ, nothing can be more absurd than to set up works, which ought to be subordinated to this paternal favor of God.
We now see how these two things harmonize --- that reward is promised to works, and that works themselves deserve nothing before God; for though God can justly reject them, he yet regards them as acceptable, because he forgives all their defects.
Thus have we brief stated the reason why our works are approved by God; they are not so on account of any worthiness, but through his favor alone; for there is no work which would not on account of its imperfection be displeasing to God, were he to require that it should be according to the rule of his law. Hence God departs from his own law and turns to mercy, that he may regard works as acceptable, which otherwise could not, being defective, stand before his presence. It now follows ---
Malachi 3:18
18. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
18. Et convertemini, et videbitis inter justum et impium, inter servientem Deo et eum qui non servit ei.
This verse at the first view seems to be addressed to the faithful; for there never has been a turning as to the reprobate: but as the word has a wide meaning, the passage may be suitably applied to the whole people, according to what we find in Zechariah, ``They shall see him whom they have pierced;'' for we have said that this might be understood both of the good and of the bad. So also the whole people might be viewed as addressed in these words. But when we more minutely examine all circumstances, it seems that Malachi more particularly addressed the ungodly, and checked again their furious blasphemies; for we find almost the same sentiment expressed here, as when he said, ``The Lord whom ye expect shall come to his temple, and the angel of the covenant whom ye seek;'' and at the same time he showed that the coming of Christ, which they said was advancing too slowly, would not be such as they desired or looked for. ``Let not this delay,'' he says, ``be grievous to you; for everything terrible which his majesty possesses will be turned on your heads; for he will come as an angry judge and an avenger: ye therefore in vain hope for any comfort or alleviation from his presence.''
So also he says in this place, Ye shall see this difference between the just and the unjust; that is, ``Ye shall find that God does not sleep in heaven, when the ungodly grow wanton on the earth and abandon themselves to every kind of wickedness: experience then will at length teach you, that men shall not thus with impunity become insolent against God, but that all your wickedness must come to a reckoning.''
When therefore he says, that they would find the difference between the godly and the ungodly, he means that they would find by the punishments which God would